We're sunsetting PodQuest on 2025-07-28. Thank you for your support!
Export Podcast Subscriptions
cover of episode This Crazy Wave We’re Riding: Walmart’s Prakhar Mehrotra and the Ups and Downs of AI

This Crazy Wave We’re Riding: Walmart’s Prakhar Mehrotra and the Ups and Downs of AI

2020/10/20
logo of podcast Me, Myself, and AI

Me, Myself, and AI
AI Deep Dive AI Chapters Transcript
People
P
Prakhar Mehrotra
S
Sam Ransbotham
S
Shervin Khodabandeh
Topics
Prakhar Mehrotra: 我在沃尔玛负责机器学习，主要工作是构建算法，用于商品分类、定价、库存管理和财务规划等核心领域的决策。我领导一个80人的团队，涵盖数据科学家、数据分析师和数据工程师等。沃尔玛使用AI的目标是更好地服务消费者，而成功的关键在于与业务部门密切合作，将业务利益相关者纳入AI发展进程。在沃尔玛门店场景中，AI算法面临的挑战是数据缺乏标签，需要进行推断而非直接学习，这使得算法开发难度加大。此外，从现有数据中学习隐藏模式，以及向最终用户解释算法推断结果的合理性也是巨大的挑战。我的教育背景和职业经历帮助我将科学与商业相结合，并适应不同领域的工作。在商业环境中，数据科学家需要能够解释他们的工作，并引导业务用户参与其中。在企业环境中进行重大投资时，需要在保持乐观的同时快速交付成果，以保持信任。成功的AI实施不仅仅是执行，更是一个思想交流的过程，需要将各方利益相关者都纳入其中。AI实施是一个从商业智能到人工智能的旅程。获得Edelman奖是对我们工作的肯定。即使是很小的成本节约，对消费者来说也意义重大，这赋予了我的工作重要意义。我的工作包括管理、团队和利益相关者管理以及宣传和激励等方面。我工作中最快乐的部分是看到人们开始相信AI，以及为沃尔玛的日常运营做出贡献。领导AI团队就像坐过山车，充满挑战和机遇。 Sam Ransbotham & Shervin Khodabandeh: Prakhar Mehrotra 的经验表明，在大型企业中成功实施AI需要与业务人员密切合作，共同设计和实施解决方案。AI解决方案不可能一开始就完美，需要不断学习和改进，并与利益相关者建立信任。成功的AI领导者需要具备倾听、合作、承认不足和学习的意愿，以及对AI的热情。许多公司难以从AI中获得显著的财务效益，部分原因在于组织层面的问题，例如变革管理和用户参与。

Deep Dive

Chapters
Prakhar Mehrotra discusses his role at Walmart, focusing on using AI for decision-making in merchandising areas like pricing, inventory management, and financial planning.

Shownotes Transcript

Prakhar Mehrotra, vice president of machine learning at Walmart, shares his experience and how it prepared him to lead an AI team at a $500B retailer. Tasked with using AI to help with decision-making and enhance the business, Prakhar focuses on the technology that improves store merchandising (pricing, inventory management, financial planning).

Before joining Walmart, Prakhar led data scientists and developed stochastic models at Uber and Twitter, where he learned how to move quickly and scale AI. (Fun fact: he even drove for Uber to better understand the driver experience — a perfect example of the role empathy plays in AI.)

Hear Prakhar share stories on rallying and educating teams on AI, the relationship of AI and business intelligence, and what it means to make big bets in an enterprise setting. Read the episode transcript here).

Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast betweenMIT Sloan Management Reviewand Boston Consulting Group, hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Our engineer is David Lishansky, and coordinating producers are Allison Ryder and Sophie Rüdinger.

 

Guest bio: As vice president of machine learning, Prakhar Mehrotra is one of the top executives for AI and machine learning at Walmart and an internationally recognized leader and innovator in the field. He was recently awarded The Franz Edelman Medal by INFORMS for significant contributions in data science and advanced analytics. He is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and serves as a peer reviewer for top conferences and journals in AI, including the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence conference, the Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, and the International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems.

We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.

We want to know how you feel about Me, Myself, and AI. Please take a short, two-question survey).